Daily grisly discoveries in Philippines continue

Nov. 30, 2013
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Victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan take shelter from the rain under a plastic sheet as they wait to get evacuated from the airport in Tacloban on Nov. 22, 2013. More than 5,000 people were killed and up to 4.4 million displaced when the typhoon, packing some of the strongest winds ever recorded by a storm, made landfall. / Odd Andersen, AFP/Getty Images

by Korina Lopez, USA TODAY

by Korina Lopez, USA TODAY

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More than three weeks after Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines, rubble still blankets much of the hard-hit city of Tacloban and decomposing bodies remain trapped underneath the debris.

As of Thursday, the death toll of Typhoon Haiyan victims had risen to 5,560, with 1,757 others missing.

While watching the numbers ticking upward in the media is horrific, what Philippine citizens are seeing right before their eyes is unimaginable.

Tacloban City Administrator Tecson John Lim, who has been organizing much of the relief efforts, gives an account of what he sees:

On clearing the roads: Just about everything is passable, but there's a difference between a passable road and a clean road. A passable road has just enough room to get in and out. A clean road has enough room for two-way traffic, but the rubble and the bodies have yet to be cleared. About 75% of roads are cleared, although those in residential areas are untouched.

Grisly discoveries: Dogs, mostly from America, that are able to sniff out cadavers have been helpful in finding and retrieving the bodies. But we haven't been able to start searching for the bodies in collapsed houses in residential areas, and on average, we find 45 bodies a day. There are still 600 bodies that have been flagged but we haven't recovered yet.

Finding loved ones: The collection of cadavers has been going very slowly, so most of the bodies are unidentifiable. There hasn't even been that much effort from the survivors to locate their loved ones. We're all focused on the living for now.

Signs of progress: People are less frantic, so looting and crime is much better. Imagine seeing all the devastation and the dead bodies and not knowing when help will arrive. People panicked. But it is much better now. We caught three people trying to break into a warehouse, but the city is safe enough for people to go back to selling their goods on the streets. There are six banks operating without military or police security detail. And there are even a couple of grocery stores that have been reopened.

Overwhelmed with gratitude:We sincerely thank each and every person, organization and country that has extended their aid to us. It is because of this aid that we can have hope that we can get back on our feet and rebuild our city better than it was before. We cling to the hope that people will continue to support us. Hopefully, we all have learned what has happened here. We must pay more attention to disaster preparedness and the effects of climate change.